3.3 Distribution of publications in subject categories
From 1979 to 2019 the scientific literature was distributed among a
broad range of scientific fields (WoS subject categories): 28 subject
categories in total, with the WoS subject category Microbiology (40%)
and Veterinary Sciences (33%) as the most targeted fields. This result
suggests that these two areas remained a top priority among the various
topics being explored in AMR research in wildlife. From 1979 to 1989,
microbiology, veterinary sciences and infectious diseases held primacy
(Figure 3); however, since 2000 the number of articles in environmental
sciences and ecology have gained in importance. It is interesting to
note that during the 1979-2019 period this topic became more
multidisciplinary, which indicates a change of the spotlight of AMR
studies to an emphasis on the “One Health” framework, reflecting the
inception of the “One Health” paradigm and possibly the awareness of
researchers in the veterinary field for conducting studies on
AMR-related topics. During this 40 year period, research shifted from
Microbiology subject area into a multidisciplinary area, stressing that
the key factor for this increment in the number of research/publications
is an investment in multidisciplinary research. Interestingly, Ecology
and Environmental Sciences subject areas have been well represented in
the last decade. This goes in line with several authors highlighting
that the rising threat of AMR requires a holistic and multidisciplinary
approach (Walsh et al., 2018). We are now in an exciting and turning
point where One Health can lead to a paradigm shift that will set the
foundation to a more integrative and multidisciplinary action for
addressing AMR challenges.